Civil liberties and the making of Iran's first constitution

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 341-359

  Afary, Janet ^a  

^a PURDUE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM; POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; IRAN; MIDDLE EAST; WORLD;

EID: 27744483962     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-25-2-341     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Throughout this article, I have used Edward Browne's translation of the 1906 and 1907 Iranian constitutional laws, with minor alterations that reflect modern usage. See Browne, The Persian Revolution, 1905-1909 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910), 362-84.
2. For a discussion of the constitutional revolution, see Janet Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996);
3. Vanessa Martin, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906 (London: I. B. Tauris, 1989);
4. Mangol Bayat, Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991);
5. Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikh-i Mashruteh-yi Iran (History of Iranian Constitutionalism) (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1984).
6. See Roger Savory, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 33.
7. Sir Percy Sykes, A History of Persia (London: Macmillan, 1930), 2:381.
8. Reza Sheikholeslami, The Structure of Central Authority in Qajar Iran, 1871-1906 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997).
9. Sykes, A History of Persia, 2:384.
10. Ibid., 2: 385-86.
11. Cited in Sheikholeslami, The Structure of Central Authority in Qajar Iran, 6.
12. Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 34.
13. Sykes, A History of Persia, 2:382-83.
14. See Hossein Nasr, "Religion in Safavid Persia," Iranian Studies 7 (1974):71-93.
15. Muhammad Zerang, Tahavvol-i Nezam-i Qaza'i-yi Iran: Az Mashruteh ta Soqut-i Reza Shah (The Evolution of the Legislative Process in Iran: From Constitutionalism to the Fall of Reza Shah), vol. 1 (Tehran: Markaz-i Asnad-i Enqelab-i Islami, 2002).
16. For details, see Lady Sheil, Khaterat-i Laydi Sheil (Memoirs of Lady Sheil), trans. Hossein Abu Torabian (Tehran: Nashr-i Now, 1983), 253-65.
17. Persian translation of Lady Sheil, Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia (London: John Murray, 1856).
18. An English summary of this event appears in Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 20-21.
19. Cited in Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, 21.
20. Ibid., 24.
21. See the introduction to Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender, ed. Nikki R. Keddie and Beth Baron (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991), 8;
22. and Deniz Kandiyoti, "Islam and Patriarchy: A Comparative Perspective," 23-44, in the same collection.
23. As Nazim al-Islam Kirmani writes in his memoir, the shah initially insisted on calling the new assembly an Islamic Consultative Majles, but the constitutionalists rejected this proclamation. See Kirmani, Tarikh-i Bidari (History of Awakening) (Tehran: Agah, 1983), 1:560-63.
24. The electoral laws of 1906 were also influenced by Bismarck's imperial German Constitution. Hasan Taqizadeh stated that the electoral laws "were based on various European systems and particularly on the German model." On this point, see Edward Browne, "The Persian Constitutionalists," Proceedings of the Central Asian Society, 1909, 12. One area where there is clear correspondence is Article 6 of the Iranian law, where the number of deputies from each province is determined (with larger provinces having more deputies than smaller ones). This is similar to Article 6 of the German Constitution.
25. See Louis L. Snyder, ed., Documents of German History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1958), 227. The Second Majles ratified universal male suffrage in the autumn of 1911.
26. See Browne, "The Persian Constitutionalists," 12-13. There were, of course, areas such as Isfahan, where leading mojtaheds, or elite members of the community, appointed the deputies, rather than allow them to be elected. In Tabriz, progressive candidates were favored. The liberal cleric Siqat al-Islam believed that the Social Democrats meddled with the election in Tabriz and that his rival Taqizadeh should not have been elected.
27. See Gholam Hossein Mirza Saleh, Bohran-i Demokrasi dar Majles-i Avval (The Crisis of Democracy in the First Parliamant) (Tehran: Homa, 1993), 1-8.
28. For discussions of the 1906 constitution, see also Said Amir Arjomand, "The Constitutional Revolution," in Encyclopedia Iranica, 187-92;
29. and Laurence Lockhart, "The Constitutional Laws of Persia: An Outline of Their Origin and Development," Middle East Journal 13 (1959): 372-88.
30. See Mozakerat-i Majlis (Proceedings of the Parliament), 28 Du al-Hajja AH 1324 (12 February 1907), 79. Among the most important of these were (1) Javad Sa'd al-Dowleh, an Azerbaijani merchant and minister of commerce in the court of Mozaffar al-Din Shah, who had lived in Belgium for some time and was the leader of the liberal/radical faction of the Majles in this period; (2) Hasan Taqizadeh, the celebrated deputy from Azerbaijan who had close ties to Social Democrats in Russian-ruled Baku and Tbilisi and eventually replaced Sa'd al-Dowleh as the leader of the liberal/radical faction; (3) Sadeq Mostashar al-Dowleh, who had studied in Istanbul and worked at Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was a deputy from Azerbaijan and a close friend of Taqizadeh; and (4) Muhammad Hossein Amin al-Zarb, one of the key financial backers of the constitutional revolution.
31. Browne, "The Persian Constitutionalists," 11.
32. The French Constitution had the least direct influence on the Iranian law, unless we count the fact that the Belgian law, which was the principal model for the Iranian law, was itself derived from the French law. But the French law had been discussed in Iran for several decades. In 1871, Yusef Mostashar al-Dolweh, a diplomat who had served in Tbilisi and Europe, published a small book in Persian based on the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. He argued that there was much compatibility between the French civil code and the Islamic Sharia laws. This book had a significant influence on Iranian constitutionalists. Several subsequent editions of Mostashar al-Dowleh's book appeared in Tabriz (1906) and in Tehran (1907). See Baqer Mo'meni, Din va Dowlat (Religion and State) (Stockholm: Baran, 1993), 295-308.
33. For the influence of the French revolutionary discourse on Iranian constitutionalists, see Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, "Asar-i Agahi az Enqelab-i Faranseh dar shekl giri-yi Engareh-yi Mashrutiyat dar Iran" ("The Impact of the Ideas of the French Revolution on the Formation of Constitutionalism in Iran"), Iran Nameh 8 (1990): 411-39. Taqizadeh does not mention the Ottoman Constitution, which was well known to Iranian constitutionalists and seems to have been consulted as well.
34. I have used the text of the Belgian Constitution that appears in J. J. Thonissen, La Constitution Belge (Bruxelles: Bruylant-Christophe, 1879).
35. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire for five centuries before it became a Russian protectorate in 1878. In the Bulgarian Constitution, the king, much like his counterparts in Greece, Serbia, and Romania, could assume dictatorial powers in times of emergency. I have used the text of the Constitution of Bulgaria that appears in Albert P. Blaustein and Gisberth Flanz, eds., Constitutions of the Countries of the World (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceania, 1992). Flanz pointed out that the Belgian Constitution of 1831 was the model for the Serbian and Bulgarian constitutions.
36. For a text of the Ottoman Constitution, see Suna Kili, Turkish Constitutional Development (Istanbul: Mentes Matbaasi, 1971), 150-62.
37. For a text of the Russian Constitution, see Albert P. Blaustein and Jay A. Sigler, Constitutions That Made History (New York: Paragon, 1988), 256-73.
38. For the Japanese Constitution, see Marquis Hirobumi Ito, Commentaries on the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (1906, 2nd ed.; repr., Washington, DC: University Publications of America, 1979). The German law was the model for the Japanese Constitution, and it contained none of the civil rights provisions of other nineteenth-century European constitutions.
39. For a comparison of the German Constitution with the American and French ones, see George Jellinek, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens: A Contribution to Modern Constitutional History (Westport, CT: Hyperion, 1901), 5.
40. See Arthur Goldschmidt, A Concise History of the Middle East, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1983), 219.
41. See Abbas Amanat, Pivot of the Universe: Naser al-Din Shah Qajar and Iran's Monarchy, 1851-1896 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
42. See also Sheikholeslami, The Structure of Central Authority in Qajar Iran;
43. Lockhart, "The Constitutional Laws of Persia," 373-74;
44. and Mehdi Malikzadeh, Tarikh-i Enqelab-i Mashrutiyat-i Iran (History of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran), 7 vols. (Tehran: 'Elmi, 1984), 1:92-94.
45. For the contribution of Baha'ullah and other Baha'i leaders to these debates on political liberty and democracy in the late nineteenth century, see Juan R. I. Cole, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Bahai Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
46. For a discussion of the relations between Iran and Belgium, see Martin, Islam and Modernism.
47. An account of this event was recorded in Nava'i, "Qanun-i Asasi-yi Iran va Motamam-i an Cheguneh Tadvin Shod?" ("How Was the Constitution of Iran and Its Supplement Compiled?"), Yadgar 4 (1947): 34-47.
48. This privilege would be contested on several occasions during the nineteenth century. In 1894, the property qualifications of the electorate were removed. Instead, some Belgian citizens were given multiple votes under certain conditions (property, high education, official status), up to three votes per person. These changes, however, did not influence the Iranians' reading of the Belgian law, since they were working with the text of the 1831 law. For details, see the entry on Belgium in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 ed.
49. R. C. K. Enson, Belgium (New York: Henry Holt, n.d.), 142;
50. Mark Almond, Revolution: Five Hundred Years of Struggle for Change (New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 1996), 143.
51. Janet Polasky, "Belgian Revolutions, 1786-1830," unpublished manuscript. Thanks to the author for sharing this material with me.
52. French was the dominant language by this time, and it was the only language used in the administration, parliament, and the courts. The Francophone elite used this provision to impose French throughout much of Belgium. As a result, by the 1840s, Flemish had virtually disappeared. Polasky argues that the imposition of French in 1830 eventually threatened the existence of the Flemish language and culture, which in the twentieth century resulted in the rise of a Flemish separatist movement. See her "Liberalism and Biculturalism," in Arend Lijphart, ed., Conflict and Coexistence in Belgium: The Dynamics of a Culturally Divided Society (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1980), 35-36.
53. Any change in the Belgian Constitution required a two-thirds majority, followed by the dissolution of the parliament, the election of a new parliament, and then a second vote by the new parliament to ratify the change.
54. In Congo, for example, the most rapacious exploitation of the population took place. King Leopold formed an international group to exploit the Congo region and its vast resources, especially diamonds. The 1884-85 Conference of Berlin recognized Leopold as the king and chief owner of the Congo Free State. By 1920, millions of Congolese had died as a result of extremely inhumane working conditions that included slave labor.
55. J. D. De Gruben, "The Dutch Regime (1814-1830) and the Kingdom of Belgium," in Belgium, ed. Jan-Albert Goris (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1945), 32.
56. See also Jean Stengers, "Belgian National Sentiments," Lijphart, Conflict and Coexistence in Belgium, 48.
57. Enson, Belgium, 142;
58. Almond, Revolution, 143.
59. Mehdi Qoli Hedayat, one of the framers of the constitution, wrote that "we had also read the constitutions of France and Belgium. A country that embarks on a new and unfamiliar road should move slowly. Unfortunately, and as a matter of custom, the Belgian Constitution, which is based on the French, was the model. The radical French themselves did not follow the laws of that Constitution.... if it had not been for political reasons, we should have imitated the British, who always maintained the old order and only reformed the inadequacies." See Hedayat, Khaterat va Khatarat (Memories and Dangers) (Tehran: Zavvar, 1965), 145.
60. See Mozakerat-i Majles, 7 Zulq'adeh AH 1324. As a result of these oppositions a senate was not formed during the constitutional era and for the next four decades.
61. See ibid., 9 Zulq'adeh AH 1324 (25 December 1908) and 20 Ramazan AH 1324 (7 December 1906).
62. This amendment to Article 11 (the oath taken by the Majles) was modified in the final draft. The text of the 1906 constitution says that so long as the rights of the Majles and the deputies are protected and observed (according to the constitution), the deputies pledge allegiance to the king and the nation. For the text of the 1906 constitution, see Kirmani, Tarikh-i Bidari, 1:39;
63. Mozakerat-i Majles, 11 Zulq'adeh AH 1324 (27 December 1906), 36.
64. Mozakerat-i Majles, 14 Zulq'adeh AH 1324 (30 December 1906), 38.
65. See ibid.,
66. 1 Rabi' al-Thani AH 1325 (14 May 1907), 166.
67. Isma'il Rezvani writes that Muhammad 'Ali Shah added the phrase, "as a divine gift" when the document was presented to him for his signature. See Jahangir Shamsavari, "Barkhord-i Ara' va Aqayed" ("Conflict of Views and Opinions"), Negin 3 (1998): 18-22.
68. Note that the 1907 Iranian law contained no provisions dealing with an incapacitated king, unlike the Belgian one (Article 82 of the Belgian law).
69. Suna Kili, Assembly Debates on the Constitutions of 1924 and 1961 (Istanbul: Mentes Matbaasi, Robert College Research Center, 1971), 15.
70. However, in June 1908, Muhammad 'Ali Shah used the same Cossack Brigade to close the Majles and to bring the first constitutional period (1906-8) to an end. It should be noted that the Iranian law did not recognize the rights of a citizens' militia, one that was regulated by law, although the Belgian Constitution had included such a provision (Articles 122 and 123). This type of citizen militia was created in Iran in 1906-7, and its members were known as the mujahideen. The mujahideen defended the new organs of the constitutional government (the Majles and the anjomans) against Muhammad 'Ali Shah and the conservative opposition.
71. For a discussion of the traditional assignment of provincial and departmental anjumans, see Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 169-72.
72. They were apparently adopted from French colonial laws in Algeria. See Hasan Taqizadeh, "Tarikh-i Enqelab-i Iran" ("History of Iran's Revolution"), Yaghma (1961): 1-48.
73. For a text of the early draft, see Iraj Afshar, Qabaleh-yi Tarikh (Deed of History) (Tehran: Talayeh, 1989).
74. For a text of these laws, see the "Supplementary Fundamental Laws of October 7, 1907," in Browne, The Persian Revolution, 372-84.
75. As Muhammad Turkaman has pointed out, the deputies altered Sheik Fazlollah Nuri's original project and refused to abide by all of his recommendations. In Nuri's original proposal: (1) the clerical committee operated outside the Majles and therefore established a parallel structure of authority, (2) the exact number of members of this committee was not determined, (3) the selection process for the committee was also undefined, and (4) the stipulation that committee members should be fully aware of contemporary worldly concerns was not indicated. See Turkaman, "Nezarat-i Mojtahedin-i Taraz-i Avval" ("The Overseeing of the Ranking Clerics"), Tarikh-i Mo'aser-i Iran 1 (1994): 15-51. The Council of Clerics operated briefly during the Second Majles (1909-11) but remained dormant for the next seventy years. Still, clerical deputies such as Hasan Mudarres examined new laws and rejected those they deemed in violation of the Sharia.
76. See Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 134.
77. Iran-i Naw (New Iran), no. 120, 20 March 1911.
78. Zerang, Tahavvol-i Nezam-i Qaza'i-yi Iran, 1:174.
79. Ibid., 1:176-257.
80. Here again, the French law was the most liberal, as it stated that all (male) citizens are equal and eligible for all post. The Ottoman law stated that "citizens are equal without prejudice to religion." The Iranian law added no such emphasis.
81. This article might have been a response to Article 113 of the Ottoman Constitution that gave the sultan the right to exile those violating state security. As is well known, Sultan Abdulhamid II (r. 1876-1909), who dissolved the Parliament and suspended the constitution in 1878, frequently expelled liberal reformers from the country. See Kili, Turkish Constitutional Development, 15.
82. Because of pressure by European governments, especially Britain, slavery had been banned through several ordinances issued by Naser al-Din Shah. Remnants of domestic slavery remained through the 1920s, however. See Thomas Ricks, "Slavery and Slave Trading in Shi'i Iran," Journal of Asian and African Studies 36 (2001): 407-18. British Foreign Office reports indicate that the slave trade continued on a much smaller scale in another direction as well. In 1929, some 250 Baluchis were sold across the Persian Gulf.
83. See the letter by Arthur Henderson, 9 November 1929 (London: British Foreign Office, 1929), files 248/1387.
84. This is based on Article 26 of the French Declaration and Article 25 of the Belgian Constitution.
85. For a classic treatment of the subject, see Jean Bethke Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).
86. See also Patricia Boling, Privacy and the Politics of Intimate Life (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
87. One can argue that in the course of the constitutional revolution a bargain was reached between the modernists and the clerical establishment over women's bodies. This agreement was broken in the late Pahlavi era, with grave political consequences. For a discussion of changes that took place during the Pahlavi era, see Parvin Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
88. See Lockhart, "The Constitutional Laws of Persia," 381.